Design: World’s Best-Designed Newspapers

Society for News Design announced the World’s Best-Designed Newspapers last week. These four newspapers (and associated magazines) have been awarded:
Äripäev of Tallinn, Estonia
(Designed by Jacek Utko, you can view his portfolio at www.utko.com/);
El Economista of Madrid, Spain
(Designed by Innovation International Media Consulting Group* led by Javier Errea, and with Miguel Buckenmeyer). Interestingly, Innovation has a set-up in India, but I could not see any design work for Indian publishing houses mentioned on their site.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung of Frankfurt, Germany (Designed by www.Kircher-Burkhardt.com)and
Politiken of Copenhagen, Denmark
(Designed by Palmer Watson of www.palmerwatson.com).

Sad to note that none of the first four is designed by Mario Garcia, India’s favorite newspaper designer (His latest being MINT for Hindustan Times)!

For more detailed information on the awards and the philosophy behind choosing the winners, read here.

Trends: Online Magazine Casual Games

Conscious that an increasing number of adults are going online to play games and do puzzles, a growing number of magazines are adding games to their Web sites, hoping to boost traffic and ad dollars.
Hearst, publisher of Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Good Housekeeping and Harper's Bazaar, has struck a two-year deal with an online game developer, Arkadium Inc., to add an array of customized games to its magazine Web sites. Behind the shift is a realization that the stereotype of online gamers -- teenage boys whittling away their nights in front of the glow of a computer screen -- is out of date. Nearly half the people playing online games are aged between 30 and 59, according to Boston-based Forrester Research, and they play everything from mahjong to Sudoku, word games and solitaire.
Arkadium's first game as part of this deal launched on the Teen magazine site on February 12, while web-based games for CosmoGIRL! and Seventeen will launch on each magazine's respective site later in February.

Some of the games expected in the coming weeks:
Seventeen: "Editor's Assistant" allows the users to play the role of an assistant to Seventeen's editor in chief.
Cosmopolitan: "Boy Toy" allows players to control a virtual "boy toy" and try to keep his girlfriend satisfied. The game ends when the girlfriend breaks up with her boyfriend or stays in the relationship for one year.
Esquire: Expected to add casino-style games, without a gambling component.

Try the Teen Magazine game 'Dancing Queen' here.
Original article link here

Study: Spectacular Ads Get Spectacular Recall

Eric Sass of MediaPost reports that according to a new study by Starch Communications Research "Spectacular magazine ads--including multi-page spreads, three-dimensional pop-ups, scented ads and ads with an audio component--produce a big bump in measures like brand recall and the number of readers that read ad copy."

Philip W. Sawyer, senior vice president of Starch Communications Research, says the study, heralds a new era of creativity in magazine advertising. Sawyer predicts that "when we really start exploring spectacular ads, people will pick up a magazine to see the ads." Among the case studies in Sawyer's report are two ads that scored a remarkable 100% in reader recall and engagement. The first ad, for Pepsi Jazz (also featured on this blog) was a two-page spread featuring a three-dimensional pop-up of the opened bottle, with small audio chip in the page playing jazz music. This ad also allowed readers to use a scratch-and-sniff tab to "sample" the new flavour. The second ad, for (also called first sonic ad on a few sites) pairs a three-dimensional pop-up with an audio chip.

However, the study cautions against unrealistic expectations for their effectiveness: "If you have a six-page ad, you can't expect recall or these other measures to increase sixfold. It's incremental." But if you have a magazine with a readership of 6 million, he adds, "and the number of people who recall an ad goes from 500,000 to 750,000--it's only a 50% rise, but that's a huge number of people."

Original Story Link: Study Finds Spectacular Print Ads Get Spectacular Recall
Post about Pepsi campaign: "Advertising: Pepsi Brings Smell, Sound To Print" Posted October 11 2006
Case study: Clairol Herbal Essences conditioner: First Sonic ad

Editorial: The Versatile Sidebar

I have spent the entire day looking at ways to update links that show my website categories in the sidebar (archives by subject) which has become redundant after I updated to new blogger:( Interestingly, sidebar is one element from Print that is omnipresent online. (Also used on this site to provide easy access to archives, links to my other blog, to list our some links, etc)
It was about 10 years ago, that I was introduced to sidebars. Though layouts have become very dynamic since, sidebars still continue to show up, especially in the front section of various magazines. If you are new to sidebars, here are some common ways to use sidebars in your articles.
1) Provide ‘You too’ angle: Use Sidebars to relate to the reader directly. If you are profiling a successful business person, a sidebar could contain some general information on how you can set up your own business.
2) Sidebars can profile specifics or provide local angle. This is often seen in those Indian titles that have content licensing agreement with international publications. India angle is sometimes provided through a sidebar!
3) Use them to add late-breaking information to your article.
4) Timelines also make good sidebars and show the story in context—how it all began, and how we arrived at this situation. (Though, I feel timeslines work best running through the double spread on top or at the bottom).
5) Highlight one person’s view, usually a minority opinion, on the topic.
6) Highlight case studies/personal stories to support your article.

Since, sidebars are expected to aid readership of your story, here are some do's and don'ts
1. Place sidebars along the main story. Never at end.
2. Content should self contain, not depend on main story.
3. Body type and colour can vary.
4. Heads should be direct, simple, even labels (as shown in the example from Better Photography here).
5. Visually, they provide contrast.

Still want to know more? Refer to 'The Many Uses of Sidebars' in FOLIO:

TIP: Gift a Magazine Subscription!

If you are a magazine lover like me, perhaps you can heed the message of this ad and gift your 'significant other' a subscription to the magazine of their interest. That way your gift gets to him/her 12 times in a year :) (yikes, is it sounding corny?)


Actually, a thoughtful friend once gifted my office a subscription to Reader's Digest, not a magazine our office usually gets and it was something we looked forward to every month. And when I was much younger a friend was gifted 'National Geographic' (very expensive and also difficult to find in the small city I grew up in) and we treated it like something really precious and needless to say, it opened our eyes to a very different and exciting world.

Here are few helpful links to help you select magazine gifts:
Magazine Store at Indiatimes.com
International magazines on Indiatimes

Know of more? Please share...

Media Ads: The Economist 'Brain'

I came across this ad in a forward of Great Ads of the World sent by a friend and I instantly wanted to share it here.
This exceptionally powerful ad for 'The Economist' was created by O&M Singapore and won the gold award at The One Show 2004.
The ad has no logo or copy, but if you see long enough you can identify the familiar red masthead, low on the center of the brain.

LaunchPAD: 'Mint' and 'Lounge' from HT

HT Media’s business newspaper 'Mint' hits the newsstands in Mumbai and Delhi today. The compact, which is a product of collaboration between HT Media and the Wall Street Journal, will have an initial circulation base of over 75,000 according to UNI.
The weekend edition is expected to be accompanied with a magazine supplement called 'Lounge'.
The site www.livemint.com
also goes live today. You can also download and view daily e-front page (available in pdf format) from the homepage.